Chapter 20: The Mirror Maze
The doors stretched endlessly, as if the Red Room had no end, no beginning. Elias moved forward, hand brushing against each cold, polished doorknob, his heart pounding with every step. The crimson light overhead pulsed like a dying star, flickering with every whisper that slithered through the air.
Each door held a name.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFzXTLmOi7
Each name was his.
But each date beneath them was different. Some from the past. Some from the future. One... today's date.
The moment he reached for that one, the door creaked open by itself. He had no choice but to step inside.
The world shifted again. He stood in the old chapel once more—but it wasn’t abandoned. It was alive with voices, the soft hum of a congregation, the scent of fresh flowers and candles.
And at the altar stood Grayson. Alive. Smiling.
“Elias,” Grayson called, beckoning him forward. “It’s over. You found your way back.”
For the briefest moment, hope flickered in Elias’s chest. He moved toward his friend, but the closer he got, the more the world around him began to blur. The people in the pews were wrong—their faces were smooth, blank, identical to the creature from the Hollow Truth.
And when Grayson extended his hand, it wasn’t flesh. It was bone.
The walls of the chapel dissolved into mirrors. Elias spun, his reflection multiplying endlessly — but each one twisted. In some he was older, scarred, with eyes black as voids. In others, he was the one holding the knife.
And then all the reflections spoke at once:
"You never left the Red Room."
The mirrors shattered, glass cutting through the air like shrapnel. The floor beneath Elias vanished, and once again, he was falling — only this time, there was no ground waiting to catch him.
And from the void, a voice emerged.
"Every choice brings you back to me."
The shadow was waiting. The real one. The thing behind the town’s curse. The thing behind his memories.
Elias opened his eyes in a cold sweat, back in his motel room. The clock blinked 3:33 AM. Was it all a dream? His hands were still trembling, and on the nightstand sat the locket. Open. The photo inside had changed.
It was now a picture of him and Grayson — but neither of them were smiling. Both had hollow, empty eyes.
The nightmare wasn’t over.
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